A California appellate court reversed a lower court's grant of a peremptory writ of mandamus in favor of an environmental group that set aside defendant city's approval of a housing project subdivision map and that required a focused environmental impact report (EIR) or equivalent analysis to be con...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court's denial of a petition for a writ of mandate, which challenged the certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act and the approval of a developer's tentative subdivision tract map in Inyo County...

The Ninth Circuit vacated as moot a dispute concerning the federal government's policy for listing killer whales under the Endangered Species Act. An environmental group filed suit after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-Fisheries denied its petition to list the Southern Res...

The Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court decision vacating a prior order that set aside a U.S. Forest Service decision revoking a business' permits to operate a lodge and outfitter-guide service. The business sold its property after the permits were revoked but before the lower court issued its order....

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court's decision to abstain from an action seeking a declaration of the rights and obligations of various insurance companies and an oil company with respect to soil contamination surrounding the oil company's refinery in Hartford, Illinois. The lower court correc...

A district court dismissed environmental groups' claim that the Department of Homeland Security's waiver of various federal environmental laws with respect to the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border under the REAL ID Act of 2005 was unconstitutional. The court lacks the power to in...

The Ninth Circuit held that an insurance company had no duty to pay for the difference between the sale price received for polluted properties and the fair market value of the land had it been cleaned up prior to sale. The properties at issue were owned by two dissolved partnerships. A court-appoint...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed individuals' appeal from a judgment for defendants in a case claiming that they violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act in adopting a National Park Service (NPS) program to restore and protect Santa Cruz Island by, in pa...

The Second Circuit upheld a consent decree between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a private company involving the removal of polychlorinated biphenyls from the Hudson River. A town where some of the work will be performed intervened in the case arguing that provisions of the cons...

A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Alaska native groups seeking to rescind certain oil and gas leases issued by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) in 2007. The MMS prepared an EIS in 2003 for lease sales that were to occur in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Because of the time lag between the 20...